Christie: ‘Childish and Stupid’ Trump Kept Documents So He Could ‘Act Like He’s President’

Former Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ), a candidate for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, said Wednesday on “CNN Tonight” that former President Donald Trump kept classified documents because he was “childish and stupid.”

Anchor Kaitlan Collins said, “I don’t think we’ve gotten your reaction to the audio of Trump talking to people about classified documents that didn’t have security clearances. What went through your mind as you listened to that two-minute clip?”

Christie said, “Sounds just like him. The thing that struck me the most is that is what Donald Trump is like most of the time, constantly rationalizing his own bad behavior, justifying what he’s doing at the very moment that he’s doing it, even when he knows it’s wrong, and showing off. He’s the consummate show-off. And I think that’s what that tape was, him showing off.”

He continued, “People ask me, going all the way back to the time of the raid last year of Mar-a-Lago, why would he keep these documents? People are like, is he going to give them to a foreign government or sell them to somebody or blackmail people? You don’t understand Donald Trump. It’s just to show off. He wants to continue to act like he’s president. He can’t live with the fact that he’s not. So, that’s why he kept those documents. It seems childish and stupid, and it is, but that’s the reason why in my view he has always kept them.”

Collins said, “You compared it to a child sticking their hand into a cookie jar.”

Christie said, “Yeah, I mean, look, he knows it’s wrong, and he acknowledged that on the tape that you all got. You know, he says, look, this is classified. It’s secret. You know, I could have declassified it when I was president, but I didn’t. And now I can’t have this. I can’t show it to you. Well, you know, he knows these things are wrong, but he is like that child who tests the parent constantly, you know? And that is what is just so maddening about this. None of this had to happen.”

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